Delaware State University makes progress on constructing two new academic buildings, the college’s first in a decade.
The College of Agriculture Science and Technology building and the Early Childhood Innovation Center are set to open this fall.
DSU partnered with Agilent Technologies on the new ag building. Agilent helped fund the building and brought in $4 million-worth of equipment. It also has workers come on-campus to train and mentor students.
Agilent’s manager of philanthropic programs Sally Frank says the CAST program’s work is crucial and Agilent’s contributions promote up-and-coming scientists.
“We have a real crisis right now in agriculture,” Frank said. “The price of eggs is going way up, and we also have a lack of diversity and access in the sector. And so HBCUs are creating some of the greatest scientists, and we need to leverage that capacity.”
CAST dean Cherese Winstead concurred and added that it’s crucial DSU’s program is kept up to date.
“In order to be able to feed tomorrow's student population, we definitely have to make sure that we have those next generation of scientists that are there to be able to answer that call,” Winstead said. “But how do you influence them to see agriculture as a really viable career path? And that is through the infusion of data science, AI technologies in agriculture.”
Frank said DSU is now one of the leaders in integrating AI into its agriculture sciences offerings.
“... Which is going to change the game, is absolutely critical. And it's going to require resources to make that work.”
Both buildings are still under construction.
